Ok, it’s time to get political. Who would you say is the best VP candidate for the presidential candidates this year?

For the Republicans, I think the best choice that McCain can do is Mitt Romney. He’s pretty popular in the polls, he’s young which might offset McCain’s old age, he could take some voters in Michigan, and he was governor in Mass. which means he may obtain some votes from that state. Not much, but he may. He’s Mormon, so he’ll definitely get the Mormon vote, and he’s had political experience before which will boost McCain’s experience as well. I think McCain is going to pick him anyways.

For the Democrats, it’s a tough call. I think the best candidates out there that have really spoken out are Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, and John Edwards. An Obama-Clinton ticket is very black and white (no pun intended here): it can be the dream ticket, or it can be the worst ticket. Clinton is considered very liberal, but this may actually help out because from what I’m hearing, Democrats don’t want to be middle of the road: they want to hold a certain position in the same way as Republicans are holding on to a certain position. At the same time, however, this may alienate moderate voters and they may go towards McCain. Clinton would help with the women vote, and if people liked Bill Clinton in the past, then people will see this connection and try to bring the Clintons back to the White House.

Joe Biden is tough. He’s had many years of experience and so he could definitely help out with Obama’s lack of it. However, not many people know him outside of the political arena. He may be a possibility, but I just don’t know what more to say about him.

Edwards would be interesting. Edwards would help get the Southern vote for Obama. Edwards is very vocal about health care and I would consider health care one of the big issues for this election. I know many people are wanting the government to think about it and so Edwards may help out in that direction. However, with him revealing of the affair, it may be a backlash and people may not want that. So in the Democratic VP selection, I still say it’s a toss-up.

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About shaunmiller

I am a Ph. D student at Marquette University. The primary purpose of this blog is to get my ideas out there, and then have other people scrutinize, critique, build upon, and systematize beliefs. This blog will sometimes pertain to what I'm learning in my classes, but it will occasionally deal with non-classroom issues that I'm thinking about as well.

14 Responses to Who’s a Good Pick for VP in the 2008 Election?

I’m with you with Romney for the Republicans. It may convince conservatives to actually vote this election… like me.

I like Clinton for the Demoncat party. You mentioned she’s considered very liberal. I’d say she’s actually less liberal than Obama and may nail some moderate votes that way. Plus, Clinton is kind of a female which would help with female voters. Last but not least, when you vote for a Clinton you know you’re getting a two-for-one, and Bill is supposedly good with foreign relations.

Interesting how bringing Bill back to the White House would help out with Obama’s lack of experience of foreign affairs. I’m also intrigued that you consider Obama more liberal than Clinton. What makes her less liberal?

I agree completely with Killer J. Obama is naive when it comes to national defense. He seeks to deeply cut defense spending, and says he would disarm our nuclear arsenal, leading the rest of the world to disarm by example.

Russia is re-emerging as a real global threat. This is not the time to completely disarm, while trusting that they are, too. They are demonstrating that they aren’t to be trusted.

For me, as well, there is a familiarity with Clinton. You know what you are getting. Obama just doesn’t have a track record from which to judge.

I wish I was more political savvy as you two. You two should get together sometime and discuss politics.

Ok, so from what I’m hearing, Obama’s lack of experience isn’t the problem. In fact, lack of experience doesn’t necessarily mean one’s going to be a bad president. Abraham Lincoln’s only experience in politics before he became President was one term in the Representatives. But I think what you’re saying that Obama’s problem is him being naive. So Jory, you’re example is Russia emerging as a threat and Obama’s strategy is to disarm. The purpose of disarming is to show the world that one of the world’s superpowers can disarm and be the best example of this. I think this can work only if the world looks at us positively in the first place. If the world doesn’t like us and we disarm, then nations could take advantage of that.

I’m not ready to side with McCain though. I don’t consider him naive, but too idealogical for my tastes. I like the flexibility of politicians and I wish there were more of them. For example, everyone critiques Joe Lieberman (I) of not agreeing with the Democrats and siding with a lot of issues with the Republicans. My reply is what’s wrong with that? I’m actually happy that he’s not sticking on party lines because that means he’s acting on what he truly believes what’s best for the country, not the party. Likewise, Chuck Hegel (R) critiques the Bush administration and everyone is giving him some flack because he’s not sticking to his party. Again, my response is what’s wrong with that? I’m glad he isn’t sticking to what the party believes and says what’s on his mind. As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of party politics. Unfortunately, I think this two-party system is here to stay which is why I get disillusioned about politics sometimes. However, I try my best to stay involved. Sorry, that was a bit of a rant there.

I’m having a hunch that Obama won’t pick Clinton because I don’t think Obama wants the Clinton’s back at the White House. Sure there’s a sense of familiarity, but I don’t think Obama likes that familiarity. If you asked me last week, I probably would’ve said Edwards but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I wish I knew more about Pawlenty and Bayh to give an informed opinion.

For the Republicans, I’m still sticking with Romney. I think he’s popular enough to transcend the Mormon vote, maybe not in the South but it’s possible that McCain could still win it with a strategy in mind of not needing the South. I guess we’ll see in a couple of weeks.

I hope you’re doing well! Thanks for the reply.. Just a couple of thoughts:

It’s a tough proposition in my mind to disarm by example. I see your point about being an example if we were in a favorable light to the rest of the world, but I can’t think of when the whole world has ever thought of us favorably. Even in the beginning, Great Britain despised us. In today’s world, I can’t see the world viewing us favorably, simply due to the Palestinian/Israel conflict. It seems to me that if we side with one, the other side will hate us, and if we stay neutral, both will hate us. Russia is another example.

As for McCain, if you really do long for a politician that does what he/she thinks is best, you really should give McCain another look.

He has worked with a variety of Democrats, at quite an expense to his political career. Some examples are:

Health care reform; he partnered with Hillary Clinton, who the Republicans despise.

Campaign reform; he partnered with Russ Feingold, one of the more liberal Senators.

Gun control; he partnered with Joe Lieberman just one year after being Al Gore’s running mate.

Immigration; he partnered with Ted Kennedy just two years ago. The Conservative wing of the party went nuts when he did this.

Iraq surge; he routinely went head to head with Sec. Rumsfeld about the lack of resources for the war effort. He came out for a surge policy at a time when almost nobody else, Republican or Democrat, concurred. He actually called for 20,000 extra troops over two years before Bush sent that exact amount. It proved successful. Regardless of one’s agreeing with the war or not, the Congress and the President put us there, and the best policy is to win, once the country decides to engage.

Torture: He completely snubbed Pres. Bush when he criticized water boarding and agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision on Habeas Corpus for the Guantanamo detainees.

I found some other comments made by other politicians/reporters about McCain:

Bill Clinton said of McCain’s energy policy: “But John McCain has the best record of any Republican running for president on the energy issue and on climate change.”

On his friendship with Hillary Clinton, Newsvine: “Some have suggested that perhaps Clinton and McCain could end up as each others running mates. This would certain make for some interesting Debates! Hillary – McCain Presidential debates and McCain – Hillary Vice Presidential debates. Today’s announcement came after the two spend the day campaigning outdoors in Utah at several local ski resorts.”

There are many examples of his working across the aisle. I believe this is why Joe Lieberman is campaigning for him. And, just a note on Lieberman, his voting record is most closely aligned with Chris Dodd, lest everyone believe that he is some sort of conservative Democrat.

In the end, let the words of ultra conservatives that do the talking: “Ann Coulter made a striking announcement: she’ll campaign for Hillary Clinton if John McCain is the Republican nominee. Earlier this week, the New York Observer’s Jennifer Rubin reported that members of the conservative punditry were “beside themselves” over the thought of a McCain nomination.” Limbaugh and Hannity despise this guy because of his reluctance to tow the party line.

The fact that McCain works well with others with opposing beliefs, along with the valor he showed in the torture rooms in Vietnam, and his judgment on issues like Iraq sways me.

Sorry for the dissertation…I wish I were still in your class! I would submit this for a homework assignment!

Ok, I’m somewhat caught up with my school preparation so I can come back and reply. I’ve got to say that I’m impressed with Jory’s research on McCain. It’s top-notch stuff! All in all, I do like McCain on the Republican side. He does show some commitment to reach across the party table to get things done and that’s a pragmatic approach. In fact, I was seriously thinking of voting for him in the 2000 election, but Bush won the Republican primaries.

I think why I’m disillusioned by McCain is because he seems to go against some things that he said back in 2000 when I admired him. Now I don’t know if it’s because he’s changed his mind, or if he’s trying to appeal to the Republican base. I understand it’s all politics and that as soon as the election’s over, he doesn’t have to appeal to the base anymore. But it seems that he’s reaching to the base and that doesn’t really appeal to me. All in all, however, I do like McCain. Jory, if you have any classes that deals with this issue, you should submit it. It’s a good case on why McCain’s a good pick.

In this election, the biggest issues are the war, health care, and the economy. Many of you know that I was against this war from day one. But unlike most people, I don’t think getting out is the best goal. Yeah, I’d like to get out, but simply leaving isn’t going to help; it’ll make things much worse. For a good case of this, look at the situation in Afghanistan. We came in and helped the Afghan’s kick the Soviets out in the 1980’s, and as soon as they left, we left too. So what happened in Afghanistan? It was a bunch of rag-tags without a government and that’s why the Taliban came about. (By the way, a movie called Charlie Wilson’s War shows this out really well.) I’m afraid if we leave, the same thing could happen. When I look at philosophical articles about the war, it’s always one-sided: the war was just, or the war was unjust. I would argue the war was unjust, but staying is unfortunately our best bet, at least until there’s some sort of stability.

It’s also interesting that the major conservative pundits (Limbaugh, Hannity, and Coulter) don’t like McCain. By the way, does anyone know whom Coulter is supporting in this election? Is it still McCain?

Replying to Killer J, I thought Biden as a pick is interesting also. Biden does critique Obama on some areas but I think Obama picked him because he’s had experience and foreign expertise. Also, if Obama picked Clinton, the McCain camp could easily criticize that ticket as being really liberal. But with Biden in there, seeing that’s somewhat more moderate, it kind of diffuses the McCain camp to criticize Biden. I think Biden may help out with the Obama ticket.

Another interesting question: does this do anything for McCain by picking the VP? What I mean is did McCain have someone in mind, but as soon as he found it out was Biden, McCain therefore picked someone else?

Well don’t feel bad Jory. I don’t think anyone predicted Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP pick. I don’t know anything about her so I researched her and I already like her. She’s well-known for whistleblowing dealing with ethical issues within the Republican Party, she’s told Sen. Ted Stevens to come clean, and she seems to reach across party lines. If you look her profile in Wikipedia, she’s a true Alaskan. I think McCain made a good choice because she may help take away some Clinton voters and convert some women Democrats to Republicans (at least for this election).

So we’ve got McCain with a lot of experience, against Obama, who doesn’t have much experience.

But also we’ve got Palin, with only 2 years of Governmental experience, against Biden with 36 years of experience.

History is being made: we’ll have the first female Vice President, or the first Black president. All I can say is that this election will definitely not be boring.